Life of Fei: A bit about my summer...

Well, as most of you know, it has been a busy summer for me. I have traveled all over the world and loved every minute of it. I wanted to blog about the cruise I took recently with my mother-in-law, brother-in-law, husband and niece. We had alot of fun and saw some amazing sights along the way. After I am done blogging about the cruise, I will share a bit about my recent trip to Asia.

Our flight landed in Frankfurt, Germany and we had a two hour layover until our next flight to Rome, Italy. I was beyond excited to land in Germany. For those of you who don't know, I was a History major in college. My area of study was on the Holocaust. I have dreamed of traveling to Germany learning and just soaking up the culture. I guess its a bit morbid to want to travel to a country with such a horrible history, but there is so much we can learn from what happened there.

When we landed in Rome, we checked into our hotel which was beautiful. We walked around the city and came to the Trevi Fountain which was really crowded but beautiful (it was lit up). Aaron almost got punched by some drunk Italians, which made for an interesting night.

The second day we went and visited the Colosseum (which was AMAZING), the inside reminded me of a brain with all its inner compartments. It was humbling to be in a place where believers stood their ground for their faith and suffered the ultimate consequence, death. All around the Colosseum are other historical cites, we saw the Forum which was equally amazing. It had this huge street which was once lined with shops and homes. There was also a huge temple there to a pagan god. We visited some Catholic churches, and even saw a wedding happening in one.We also visited the Pantheon. I was very excited to see this, and it lived up to my expectations. There was a church getting ready to start services inside (although it was not originally a church building but a temple to many gods). The famous painter and sculptor Raphael was buried there (maybe you know him from the Ninja turtles? :)

The food in Rome was amazing. The pizza there is thin crust, with just small amounts of cheese and whatever topping you would like. My brother in law had a Salmon pizza. There pizza was great, not over the top like we have in the states (even though its still good). I enjoyed my fill of pasta, ravioli and bread while there and could easily see myself gaining 20lbs if I lived here.

On our last day in Rome (since our cruise ship left that day) we went to the Vatican. The Vatican is its own country or entity inside the country of Italy. We had to go through a type of airport security to get inside. It was big, with a gigantic wall all around it (think British castle wall). The inside was different from what I had expected. It was green, but empty. There were large buildings all around and each had its own special purpose. We were able to see the area where the Pope resides. We went to the Sistine Chapel (where we were forbidden to take pictures or talk...even though I broke both rules)....it was gorgeous. The paintings depict different accounts in the Bible, as well as different Biblical characters. I cannot imagine painting that laying upside down for years. I enjoyed walking down the various halls and museum areas in the Vatican, they were full of history and beautiful paintings. We went into St. Peter's Basilica. We were able to see just how huge that place is and how ornate it is. It was sad to see a place that should be centered on Christ, centered on Mary and Peter. We saw a statue of peter, where people waited in a line and rubbed his feet for a blessing. They had rubbed his feet so much that they were just stubs now. I saw the area where Peter is supposedly burred (although the crowd in that area was so large I could not get near it). It was really sad to see these people worshiping dead people rather than the One true God who is alive.

I am sorry this is a long entry, it covered (really quickly) our two days in Rome (and I even skipped some parts!). Next I will talk about our first port, and I promise that will be a shorter entry.